From Mislatel to Dito Telecommunity

We’ve read and known a too few facts about the newest and the third (3rd) player in the telecommunications industry. Dito Telecommunity, formerly Mislatel, made announcements about their services being available to the public in the year 2020.

This image was taken from CNN Philippines | cnnphilippines.com

A lot of rumors and plans to start this new player by July has been talked about by many. Although true, they were not able to operate as planned and made announcements that they will be rolling their services out by next year.

Mislatel to Dito Telecommunity

Mislatel Consortium, which was led by Chelsea Logistics, Udenna Corporation, and the China Telecom, has been renamed to Dito Telecommunity just a few days ago—specifically on Monday, the 8th of July 2019.

Why the name change?

No specific operational reason as to changing the name but officials of the newest association mentioned that the modification of the name is because they’ve been reticent on the name change until now. So, it’s just a matter of their wants to change the name with no apparent reason.

It could be because of the name? How it’s going to be marketed? We don’t know—the officials said that they’ve been holding on to the Mislatel name ever since the plans of setting up a third (3rd) telco in the country has been around.

Although Adel Tamano, Mislatel Spokesman said that there’s a brief history on why they changed the name to Dito Telecommunity.

Tinanong namin sarili namin: Where do we want world class mobile service? Sabi namin, ‘dito.’ Where do we want world class broadband service? ‘Dito,.'”

In Translation: We asked ourselves: Where do we want world-class mobile service? We said, here (Dito). Where do we want world class broadband service? Here (Dito).

Yes—you guessed it correctly, Dito is the Filipino word or translation for the word “here.”

Tamano adds that they want the company to be inclusive that’s why the name change is also fit for what they want with the company.

Why don’t we just name our company as ‘Dito’ because it’s a Filipino company and we also want it na inclusive nga eh.”

If you’re unaware, Mislatel is short for Mindanao Islamic Telephone and they made announcements that they are planning to roll out their services in 2020.

To give you some sort of a refresher, Mislatel or Dito Telecommunity, within a five (5)-year span, Dennis Uy, a businessman based in Davao, said that Dito will be providing 5G services with speeds that are ten (10) times faster than what current telco providers are offering.

In addition to that, Eliseo Rio. Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), said that Mislatel is expected to get its first subscribers from populated areas like Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao as early as November this year.

Internet Speeds

With a promise of a minimum of 27 megabits per second (Mbps) in its first year of service which will then escalate to a minimum of 55 Mbps within its first five (5) year service; it surely will be one of the best telcos to ever hit our country—if not the best, fastest, and cheapest.

More so, he said that with his Dito coverage, about 84% of its population will be provided in the first five (5) years of service; about 37% in the first (1st) year. Profoundly, Dito would become the newest, fastest, and more probably the cheapest type of telecommunication service in the country.

As per news reports, our dear President Rodrigo Duterte awarded Dito Telecommunity the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity last Monday. This certificate was what they needed for them to be able to start their operations.

As per Tamano, they would have to build their cell sites because existing cell sites in the country are not able to accommodate more than one (1) telco. So he explains that even if they want to partner with them, it’s not possible because of technological capability.

A lot of people—especially those who are regularly connected to the Internet, has been waiting for another service provider. Now that Dito Telecommunity is here, they might just find what they are looking for.